Car stereo

greencreeper · 30-12-2006, 21:34

My mate had his stereo nicked - Kia Picanto. He neglected to take the front with him

The connector in the car is apparently non-standard - chunky Molex-style connector, lot of wires. We went to one of those chav-type places where you can tart up your car because you have insecurities over the size of your willy. They managed to find a connector converter that fitted and it did seem to work. I spent ages fitting (not done it before) and configuring the stereo. My mate turned off the ignition - all the settings were lost

The wiring diagram for the stereo shows that there should be a ground (-) and two live (+) - from via the ignition and another direct to the battery (so it keeps its settings). Looking at the wiring, the ignition wire from the radio goes to the main live from the battery, and the supposed main live from the radio goes to, er, an unknown wire. I think this is the problem - there's only power when the ignition is on. We're going to take the converter back - see if they have any others we can try. It's not looking good though. Ideally, a wiring diagram for the connecter in the car would help - we'd know what wire is what. I search of the Net has been fruitless and there is no Hayes manual.

Is it normally this hard to replace a stereo?

**Graham M** · 30-12-2006, 21:39

It can honestly be a pain wiring it, my advice would be to get a Multimetre to it and find out what goes to where, also check the Stereo manual for a Pinout

greencreeper · 30-12-2006, 21:50

Was thinking that myself, Zeph - but it's more expense for my mate. Stereo and lead in total only come to Â£50. I think the speaker wiring part of it is fine - hard to tell though. Hell of a lot of wires for something simple. The stereo manual has dire warnings about wiring the speakers - I don't fully understand it. The manual is written in bad English - the sort where words are missing. It's a bit crushing - it was looking great and I was all dead chuffed at sorting it out, and then he had to go and turn the ignition off

**Graham M** · 30-12-2006, 21:52

My advice would be to just find another always on Voltage Line (such as from the Cigarette Lighter) and connect that directly. (When I connected the Stereo Russ sold me, I had to get an adapter and make some connections myself but all of the colours matched thankfully and I followed the pin-out in the manual)

greencreeper · 30-12-2006, 22:55

Hmmm. Forget coloured wires matching - it's like somewhere over the rainbow. I had to get a bit of paper to help my aged brain follow it through. There's a yellow wire that is some sort of antenna but I don't understand what it's for - that doesn't appear to be wired correctly neither. Nightmare. What happened to standards - one connector for all

I'm pretty sure of which are the power wires in the car connecter - they seem thicker. But I should have three thick ones according to the stereo manual - I have two

Will see what they say tomorrow

---------- Post added at 22:55 ---------- Previous post was at 22:00 ----------

Made a bit of progress. The yellow wire is for the aerial - to power it up/down. This is not needed - just a standard, fixed aerial. That leaves switched power (from the ignition), which must be fine (it does turn off/on), and unswitched power (from the battery), which is not fine because all the settings are lost. So - if they're no help tomorrow, might be an idea to keep the connector and have a go at altering the wiring

SMHarman · 31-12-2006, 00:53

Does the MOLEX adapter have a couple of bullet connectors that enable you to switch the perm live and switched live around. Some mfrs follow the GM approach where say power 1 is perm live and power 2 is switched and others follow the Ford approach where 1 is switch and 2 is perm. Normally these blocks enable you to switch the two power leads so you keep the memory settings etc.

greencreeper · 31-12-2006, 01:36

No - it's just one large simple white connector, with about a dozen wires going into it. There are two connectors on the stereo. The converter joins the two.

SMHarman · 31-12-2006, 03:05

How about the car stereo connector?

Otherwise what you need to do. Is work out on the two power lines on either the cables to/from the stereo or the molex adapter (should be an instruction manual on the car stereo to decode the coloru code spagetti there normally a yellow and a red though) and swap them around, either by cutting, putting bullet connectors on and replugging , or carefully removing the pins from the block and swapping them around.

**Graham M** · 31-12-2006, 03:44

The 2 connectors on the Stereo are probably what is called an "ISO Connector" and is pretty standard are these 2 connectors stacked one on top of the other?

greencreeper · 31-12-2006, 11:16

Yeah - the two connecters fitted all the converters. They're seperate. There is no manual for the car. Well, there is but it's a Noddy's Guide to the instruments and car maintenance - nothing about the stereo wiring. I've not found anything online, and so far as I can gather, there is no Haynes manual for the car (or any Kia). I'm not sure how to remove the pins from the connector - seem pretty firmly seated. It's just the "memory" live wire I need to find on the connecter from the car, and match it to the "memory" live on the stereo. Going to need a multimeter to do this. If the car place where we the converter can't help, that's what I'll have to do - buy a multimeter and work it all out.

**Graham M** · 31-12-2006, 13:25

Get some bullet connectors and a crimp tool for a fiver and swap the ones you need to over

oval73 · 31-12-2006, 14:53

Here's a list for a Kia Rio, manufacturers normally stick to a standard wiring colour system so it may help you out.
Pink 12 Volt +, Constant

Green 12 Volt +, Switched

Black Ground

Blue/White Illumination

Green/Black Power Ant Trigger +

White/Black Left Front +

White/Green Left Front -

Yellow/Red Right Front +

Yellow/White Right Front -

Brown/Green Left Rear +

Brown/Black Left Rear -

Orange/Black Right Rear +

LtGreen/Yellow Right Rear -

**Graham M** · 31-12-2006, 15:39

Ooo very helpful 1st/2nd post nice one

ZrByte · 31-12-2006, 15:58

The converter you bought should have swapped the power connectors correctly, IMO they sold you the wrong one so you are entitled to a refund or the correct replacement.

greencreeper · 31-12-2006, 22:46

Thanks oval73. I do recall seeing a pink wire

Agree, zrbyte, but I can't help but wonder if the part we need exists. May be easier just to do a DIY job on it. The place was closed today. We asked at Motorsave - full of young kids who know very little. I wouldn't trust them with Lego, let alone a car. It was suggested that the stereo was at fault